The appeal has been viewed 2.8 million times on Facebook, shared 13,000 times and generated over 8,600 comments from concerned animal-lovers.

The violent assault, which took place on Hendon Road in Nelson at around 3.15pm on Thursday (10 December), was recorded on a mobile phone by a witness who reported it and passed the footage to the RSPCA. It shows a man beating a large white dog, thought to be an American bulldog, before picking the dog up and carrying the dog down the street.